Buried Alive and 33 Men are among the first books published about the rescue of 33 Chilean miners trapped deep underground for 69 days last year.

Buried Alive and 33 Men are among the first books published about the rescue of 33 Chilean miners trapped deep underground for 69 days last year.

The spectacle drew a horde of journalists to a barren hilltop in the remote Atacama Desert and proved that the world has much to learn from residents of a small South American country.

In 33 Men, Jonathan Franklin re-creates hidden scenes from the first days of the crisis, including the miners' private conversations and thoughts.

"It is terrifying, like the rocks are screaming in pain," he quotes miner Jose Ojeda, in a passage that describes how they battled through dust and darkness in a frustrated escape attempt. "We tried to advance, but we couldn't; a wall of rock blocked us."

Franklin says he based all quoted conversations on the recollection of at least one miner. Some might argue with the technique, but it provides a gripping read. And the author includes enough supporting detail to underscore its credibility.

Chilean officials have denied some of his assertions, such as references to family members sneaking marijuana and other contraband down to their men.

The book includes some delightful surprises - such as how some miners went down to the bottom of the mine, where water used in the drilling had been collecting, and enjoyed what had become an underground swimming pool.

A key chapter describes how Pedro Gallo, a gadget hound who worked his way into the rescue operation after designing a tiny phone that provided the first audio link to the trapped men, kept the world from knowing about a potentially devastating rock slide that cut off the live TV feed of the bottom of the escape shaft halfway through the rescue.

Franklin's description of how Gallo switched to a previously taped image while miner Pedro Cortes raced through the collapsing shaft to replace a severed cable has been denied by a Chilean official in charge of the live broadcast.

But reporters watching the drama unfold remember a period when the space where miners had been waiting to climb into the capsule seemed inexplicably empty.

When drillers finally opened the escape shaft, Franklin writes, cooler air caused the rock walls to contract, destabilizing the entire mine.

"I thought we were doomed," Samuel Avalos said.

Buried Alive, which is quickly following 33 Men into publication, fails to deliver on its promise of a dramatic insider Chilean perspective.

Author Manuel Pino Toro interviewed two of the miners but adds their revealing comments as a postscript to what reads as a compilation of lightly edited news coverage. It does include some underreported details - such as how President Sebastian Pinera jammed the door on the escape hatch just before the rescue began.

Franklin's book does the better job, but the whole story - one that can be shared only in first-person accounts by the miners themselves - remains to be told.